This section is intended to provide a background or context to the disclosed embodiments that are recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Color Night Vision systems relate to image methodologies and hardware, tailored specifically to provide color-enhanced night vision. Traditional night vision systems typically display scene information in monochrome (traditionally green, although red or other colors are possible, as well) images that represent information found in the infrared, which humans cannot see directly. Some color night vision systems attempt to improve upon traditional night vision systems by adding visible light information to the typical infrared (usually Thermal Infrared (TIR)) information, in order to create a more realistic image, to which the user can better relate. These systems rarely retain realistic color information and often require very expensive and complex components that limit their use in practical applications. Moreover, because such conventional color night vision systems do not accurately produce visible colors associated with objects in a scene, they are often referred to as synthetic color or otherwise not true color night vision systems.